Dustin Owen is officially out at Lower. The popular mortgage podcaster 🎙 & Southeast divisional is instead going to focus exclusively on growing the TLOP coaching/consulting business.

Owen’s exit comes at something of an inflection point for Lower. Owners Dan Snyder & Mike Baynes have raised a lot of money ($100M Series A in ‘21) & made a series of splashy acquisitions over the past few years w/ an eye towards scale. Not normal scale, we’re talking top-5 lender scale 🏋. Lower seemingly has all the ingredients: a distributed retail arm, a growing DTC business, their own tech stack & a lead-gen engine from the Movoto acquisition. A Rocket Lite of sorts 🚀.

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“From a strategy perspective, they’re making all the right moves,” said a source familiar w/ Lower’s plans. “If you’re looking at the next CrossCountry or Rate, I’d give them a better shot at it than anyone.” 

To date, the investments haven’t allowed Lower to separate from the pack. Per RETR, production over the past 14 months is flat at $4.5B & Lower’s count of producing LOs has fallen. A sizable chunk of the Thrive team that Lower acquired in late ‘23 has already left. There was a power struggle in management last year following the hire of CCM production chief Craig Montgomery. Randell Gillespie, Amir Syed & others exited. On the tech side, the company has pushed back its proprietary LOS implementation date & renewed w/ Encompass.

Critics say Lower’s primary challenge is they’re taking big bites, but also chewing slowly. 

“Everyone who's come in has said, ‘Wow, this is a great opportunity. These people are nice. They are closing loans, & they close loans on time,” said one former staffer. “But holy shit, they are not as far along as they made it sound like. This is a lot to build. I'm a little bit overwhelmed.’” 

A different source referenced the idiom of chasing 2 rabbits 🐰. “You catch none. Except Lower is trying to catch 3.” Per that source, the “whiplash” from so many different acquisitions & key projects creates confusion internally, but also to prospective recruits who would rather wait & see how it all shakes out.

Snyder disputes those characterizations. He said Lower is experiencing “great momentum,” just closed on their 3rd-best month in history, underwrites in 8 hours & closes loans in 14 days or less. Lower expects to roll out the new LOS for 95% of loans in Q2 ‘26, the company has a dynamic (mostly) new management team, a huge differentiator in Movoto purchase leads & patient VC capital.

“We're gonna take some big bites when we can, & we're gonna chew slowly so we don't choke,” he said. “If you don’t do it right, you lose credibility. A lot of stuff rolled out at companies isn’t providing value to people. We’re going to move quickly once it’s ready to go.” 

There are several new faces in the C-Suite w/ chops — ex-Redfin President Adam Weiner, Movoto CEO John Berkowitz & Rocket alum Jason Morrison have all joined within the last year.  

If the team can execute, Lower will be in an envious position. The biggest lenders build their own tech stacks for a reason. Lower also just launched a new CRM w/ CANDID & that should help w/ DTC, a nascent business that could enable Lower to run the loanDepot playbook (one of the few lenders that has achieved big success executing DTC & distributed).

Lower is working to retain its own servicing & earlier this year parted w/ LOs who weren’t profitable, sources said. Movoto, w/ its bevy of purchase leads, provides a top-of-funnel few can rival. While Lower is currently selling most of the Movoto leads to others since it lacks the footprint in most areas, it’s a big part of the future strategy.

Will it work? “It’s going to come down to execution for Lower,” said a current LO. “It’s just so much to build from scratch.”

Hey, everybody! The Mortgage Scoop launched about 2 months ago & I’ve been blown away by the support. Thank you 🙏 so much. I wanted to share an important update about the business. We’ll be moving to a paywall starting Wednesday, Nov. 19.

Paid subscribers will get exclusive MWF newsletters packed with scoops, analysis & insights you won’t find anywhere else (plus some bonus content). Founding Members can lock in the price of $240 per year. Monday editions will remain free & open for all subscribers. Hit me up w/ any questions you might have. - James Kleimann

Life comes at you fast in the Age of Trump. A few weeks ago FHFA Director Bill Pulte took to his digital bullhorn to say that the “great” Barry Habib (now a Fannie board member) was working hard to give him new options on LLPAs “pricing,” as he calls it. They met last week. Yesterday’s tweet from Pulte read quite differently.

“We are opening up the LLPA discussion to other industry pros in addition to Barry Habib's suggestions,” Pulte wrote. “While we appreciate Barry's deep experience and input, we want a full range of views as we review LLPAs. The first and foremost thing is we want to do no harm!”

In an interview w/ HousingWire’s Flávia Furlan Nunes on Tuesday, Habib said the FHFA’s plan is "not a whole revamp. It's more narrowed—just 2nd homes & cash-out refis." But nothing has been established, of course. 

If the LLPA changes end up being rather limited, that’s a big missed opportunity. The LLPAs, while high, don’t really stop investors from buying 2nd homes/investment properties. But high LLPAs can be a detriment to those just getting to the ladder. What if the GSEs waived or reduced all LLPAs for first-time homebuyers? That would help. It’s not like default rates are high on GSE loans for FTHBs. Or maybe they could adjust the buckets between 720-760 & tweak all the refi tables?

Several sources tell The Scoop that some brokers, agents, & so-called “coaches” are promoting a modern version of the no-money-down deal — one that relies on private money to fake a down payment.

In these setups, a borrower takes a short-term “private” loan to show proof of funds at closing. After the sale, the seller quietly uses a portion of their proceeds to repay that note. On paper, the buyer appears to have brought their own cash; in reality, no legitimate down payment ever existed. Mortgage fraud attorney Bob Simpson said several prominent real estate brokerages call it “creative financing.” 

“They seriously talk about this as just ‘getting around the lender roadblocks,’ Not everyone agrees, but it's talked openly enough by real estate agents that it appears there's no stigma attached to this at all,” Simpson said.

Sheesh, it is brutal for FTHBs right now. Per NAR, the median age for FTHB was 40 between July ‘24 and June ‘25. That’s up from 38 in the year prior. The FTHB share of purchases declined to 21% in NAR’s latest study, down from 24% the prior year. Roughly 60% of Gen Z and millennials say they couldn't have purchased a home w/o help from relatives. 

This is also why I’m bullish on startups like Pacaso and Pairgap. I think co-buying is going to be a much bigger thing over the next 5-10 years…

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